


Always Watching

by LegaciesandMemories



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Nohara Rin, Character Study, Fix-It of Sorts, For Want of a Nail, Friendship, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Secret Identity, Team Minato is trying their goddamn best, Time Travel, nohara rin-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegaciesandMemories/pseuds/LegaciesandMemories
Summary: Rin reaches out with everything she has left in her soul totryand bring Kakashi and Obito together for the last time, to protect Naruto and Sasuke from Kaguya, but she fails. With his son's reincarnation dying and his mother unimpeded in her conquest, The Sage of Six Paths is left with one last resort: rewinding time.-----It all starts when Nohara Rin wakes up in her grave. It honestly spirals from there.
Relationships: Nohara Rin & Konan, Nohara Rin & Ootstusuki Asura, Nohara Rin & Sanbi | Three-tails | Isobu, Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito
Comments: 20
Kudos: 94





	1. places no one's ever been

**Author's Note:**

> I see your ‘Hatake Kakashi guilt complex’ and raise you Nohara Rin’s. 
> 
> Uh, this started because I really, really hated Obito's ending, honestly. And Rin will always deserve better. 

This was not a time for irony. 

It wasn’t... _but_... 

Rin used to tell Kurenai that Kakashi was the closest to her heart. As his hand burst out of her chest, Rin allowed a brief, hysterical moment to acknowledge that she was _right;_ no one would ever be as close to her heart as Kakashi was, and no one ever would be again, judging by the way her vision had started to tunnel. 

“Ka—kashi,” she whispered, and immediately, her lungs rebelled, trying to expel the _wrong_ in her chest. There was too much, a strange burning chakra running through her veins and something even worse that had been pressed snugly against her heart. At least it was gone. Her village would be safe. 

She coughed weakly. She just wanted to say she was _sorry_. 

In her mind’s eye, she saw a turtle thrashing in bloodied water, screaming under rusted chains. In the world, she saw Hatake Kakashi cry for the first time, shedding a tear from Obito’s eye. She wondered if Obito was watching from the Pure Lands. 

Her lungs stuttered, stopped. The world faded to black.

Then, it exploded in pink. 

She couldn’t describe it well, but it was almost as if she had spent her life carrying multiple boulders on her back, and only at that moment did the weight on her shoulders fall off. For a moment, she feared that if she exhaled, she would fly through the skies like a popped balloon. 

There wasn’t anything here, just clouds and a sky on the cusp of sunrise. She gently stood and poked at her chest. There was nothing there either, simply the black shirt she was wearing, clean of blood and any holes. 

She was...dead. She forced her breaths to stay even. That was okay. She is— _was—_ a kunoichi, and she had always known she could die at any time. She had protected her village, and that was all that mattered. 

A part of her she _knew_ she didn’t have before told her that if she chose to, she could let go of the small remaining weight she had and float, float until she could reunite with her tou-san and her imouto, float until she was surrounded by long lost relatives and Academy friends who died too soon in the war. They were waiting for her, she could tell.

All she had to do was let go. 

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t, because...

She couldn’t feel Obito. 

Maybe he had gone on ahead, but something in her soul _warred_ with that idea. Obito was late for everything, but in this, he would wait for her. He would _be_ here. He was her best friend.

She could feel another gentle tug from her tou-san, her imouto, the faceless cousins, but not Obito. She ignored the rest. 

She looked down, pensive. She had left Kannabi certain that Obito was dying. She had _lived_ like Obito had died for months. But if he wasn’t here…

The cloud beneath her split, and suddenly she could _see_. 

“This is hell,” someone whispered. “I’m in hell.”

On one side, black hair, incredibly long and messy, skin _way_ paler than it had been before, trembling hands cradling her broken body. Blood dripping down a sole red and black eye. A whispered promise to make a world where she was alive. _Obito._

And so it began. 

On the other side, a boy with silver hair shattering, over and over and over. A morning ritual of washing his hands 14 times before he left his apartment. _Kakashi._

Her hands shook. She kept watching. 

The village celebrated the tentative end of war. Minato-sensei became Hokage and sent Kakashi to the black ops. 

A porcelain dog mask, deceptively solid through mission after bloody mission. New nicknames from Konoha: Cold-blooded Kakashi, Friend Killer Kakashi. Kakashi picked himself apart every morning. 

(He. kept. using. Chidori. Rin _saw_ how much it made him fall apart. She didn’t know why he made it his signature move.) 

Obito, alive and angry _,_ wearing a swirled white mask of some sort, going towards Amegakure. He should have gone back to Konoha. He should have gone _home._

He didn’t. Kami _,_ he didn’t. 

She kept watching. Obito pretended to be Uchiha Madara. Obito failed to convince an Ame trio to join his side. He watched impassively as one was killed, and manipulated the others. 

She kept watching. 

Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee had a child. A son. Obito...Obito nearly killed him, minutes after birth. Red of different shades shrouded the world as blood, chakra, and ash rained from the sky. The village was destroyed. Sensei and Kushina-nee laid in cold pools of blood. A blonde child cried for deaf ears. 

Rin split her attention. She watched Obito, manipulating the Mizukage with genjutsu and drowning Kiri’s reputation in blood. She watched Naruto grow, shunned and discarded by the village. She watched Kakashi sink into blood and chaos day after day. 

She clenched her fists hard enough to bleed. Once the cuts opened, they immediately closed. 

Her heart hurt. It wasn’t the chidori wound. 

Naruto grew. Obito came back to Konoha and Rin had _hope,_ hope things could be better, hope Obito would go home and face the consequences of his actions. 

She was wrong. She was _so_ wrong. 

She turned away from what could only be called a slaughter, from the 13-year-old Uchiha prodigy and _Obito_ towards Kakashi, but Kakashi was rushing there with his ANBU team, and she didn’t think she could throw up here but she didn’t want to risk it.

(The sky darkened from pink to red)

She turned to Naruto instead, huddling in a corner while the other orphans also curled up on the floor. Guards came to watch the group, maintaining focus on Naruto. 

She kept watching. Naruto stayed cheerful, Copy nin Kakashi stayed shrouded in grief. Obito— _Tobi—_ led a terrorist organization. 

Kakashi left ANBU and had a _team,_ Sensei’s son and a pink-haired girl and Uchiha Sasuke, the last loyal Uchiha. So much like their old team, yet so different. 

Kakashi began smiling again. He hung out with Asuma and Kurenai and Gai. Kurenai was a genjutsu _master,_ Gai had become a taijutsu monster, and Asuma carried a reputation with his blades _._ This, perhaps out of everything, was the highlight of what Rin saw. 

The last Uchiha left Konoha. Kakashi submerged himself in ANBU once more. Kurenai had a baby girl, and the Akatsuki killed Asuma. Konoha was destroyed, _again_ , by the Akatsuki. Naruto became a war hero. And finally, _finally_ , Kakashi and Obito met on opposite sides of the next World War.

Obito said it was for _her,_ and she felt sick.

(The sky darkened to black) 

Her boys tried to kill each other in Obito’s dimension, the real Madara came to life, wreaked havoc, died, and was replaced by an alien goddess. Naruto changed Obito’s mind, and finally, finally there were all consuming ash bones heading towards Kakashi’s team and Obito. 

Rin clenched her fists. The world was going to end if Naruto and Sasuke died. She could see Obito and Kakashi running, but they wouldn’t make it in time. 

She screamed wordlessly, vaguely aware of the sky around her flickering through colors. Kami, she needed to do something. Rin looked towards the bones and her friends, and _pulled_ at the remaining weight inside her, pleading with it to let her come between Obito and Kakashi and help, one more time, _pleasepleasepleaseplease—_

Suddenly, she blinked in the world, facing the progenitor of Chakra and her minion Zetsu. Everything about her body _screamed_ that something was wrong, an old but familiar sensation of pain racing through her limbs. Rin didn’t waste any time to pray or cry, grabbing Obito and Kakashi’s wrists and tugging them into place. 

Her stomach churned, and she hadn’t eaten anything in decades, but she wanted to throw up. Her boys looked so _thankful_ to die. She had managed to orchestrate not only her own death, but theirs too. What a great teammate she was. 

It would have worked, Rin thought, if they had lined into place, and protected the next generation. She would hate herself for it forever, but at least the world had a chance to be saved. 

But Obito… 

Maybe he wasn’t used to anyone reaching out to him, maybe he had traversed the world alone for so long, too long. Maybe the solitude and intangibility of Kamui had more of an effect than she thought. Maybe only coming in contact with others through the harsh contact of taijutsu left him bewildered in the presence of a guiding hand. Rin didn’t know. She wasn’t sure she ever wanted to know the answer. 

In any case, she reached out for Obito and Kakashi, and while Kakashi was pulled into place, Obito _stumbled._

She saw his eyes widen, as he recognized her form, her chakra. He tried to open Kamui in front of Kakashi, but his angle was off and his calm thrown. It was too slow and there was no time and the bone hit home. In Obito’s panic, he momentarily forgot about the other projectile now sailing over his head. 

A gasp. A wet cough. A hoarse cry of terror. Kakashi stood in front of Sasuke, heaving and fracturing but _smiling_ because he believed he had transcended his perceived uselessness. And Obito…

Obito gaped at the golden glowing boy behind him, already starting to splinter, like a sun spun from glass. Naruto coughed and slumped to the side. 

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled. Sakura ran to his side, placing a trembling green glowing palm on his chest. But there was nothing she could do—not even being Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki and Ashura’s reincarnation could save him from Kaguya’s technique. Kakashi’s smile faded immediately, and Rin knew this was it—even if Kakashi could survive, nothing would be able to pull him back from this point. He slumped to his knees, suddenly ignorant of the pieces of his body beginning to litter the floor. 

Rin blinked, and she was back in her small portion of purgatory, where the sky flickered ominously between obsidian and crimson. Her vision of the world contained cracks, as if made of porcelain. That weight that had held her down for so long was gone, but a pressure felt like it was warping the air, squeezing her into herself. Rin tried to breathe, but the action evaded her. 

Was this how she would be for all eternity? 

Her world had dwindled to fire and pain, and she looked down to see her skin was cracking as well. Rin had been so unused to pain in the years that passed that the sensation felt like she was drowning in fire. 

Naruto’s hands were cracking, but he still smiled at an openly sobbing Sakura, with a blank-faced Sasuke fixated on his form, leaking tears of blood. Kakashi began to drag himself towards his students. 

They...failed. They couldn’t seal Kaguya without Naruto, and he was dying. Zetsu grinned from underneath Kaguya’s cloak. 

Rin shut her eyes. She didn’t want to see anymore, and the world was getting darker. The last thing she saw was Obito’s trembling form, glancing between Kakashi and Naruto with unfettered grief. 

“ _STOP!”_

The world went _white._


	2. of gods and machines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to wait a week, but I already had the chapter, so why not post now?

Rin’s eyes blinked open to a man, no, a _being_ she had never seen before standing in front of her. 

Everything about him screamed _‘_ otherworldly’. He looked similar to Kaguya, with his horns and the red eye in the middle of his forehead, but much older than she appeared to be. Then again, Rin wondered hysterically, what did she know about the aging patterns of aliens? 

The world around her was still split in black and red. The vision of the world had frozen on Kakashi’s crackling body, with Naruto next to him, expression frozen in fear as he tried desperately to heal Kakashi, not taking notice or care of the cracks on his own body. Naruto was too late. 

It was all _so_ late. She hadn’t felt tired in a while, but now exhaustion dragged on her bones. 

“Hello?” she rasped, realizing she had been essentially ignoring the man right in front of her. She hadn’t spoken in so long. “Who are you?”

The man stared at her for another beat, then, “My name is Otsutsuki Hagoromo.” 

Rin’s eyes widened. The _Sage of the Six Paths_ was here? “Otsutsuki-sama,” she bowed. “I apologise for not recognizing you—” 

He chuckled, a deep rumble, before shaking his head. “Do not worry, child. You would not have met me on the battlefield.” His eyes surveyed her clinically, lingering on the cracks that were no longer spreading. “Though it appears you managed to make it there after all.” 

Rin looked down. The cracks spanned her body, but she no longer felt them when she pressed them. She didn’t understand why or how they appeared. 

“I don’t…” She trailed off, because the Sage finally had an emotion on his face she could read—pity. She frowned. 

“Do you know what’s happening, Nohara Rin?” he asked. She shook her head. He stared at her for a moment, before tilting his head.

“Why did you stay here so long for Obito?” 

Rin blinked. She hadn’t expected that question, but the answer remained clear, no matter how much Obito spiraled in the time she was gone. 

“He’s my best friend,” she whispered. Rin looked down. “I—if I had known this is what would happen if I died before him, or that he was alive at all, I might have tried waiting for Minato-sensei. If he was there...maybe he could have helped. I just thought there was no chance to beat the Kiri nin and not destroy the village...I wanted…” 

She wouldn’t have said this out loud to _anyone_ , not to Kurenai or Asuma, Kushina-nee or Sensei or her kaa-san, and _definitely_ not Kakashi. It wasn’t something she was proud of, it wasn’t something that was logical, it wasn’t something that made sense to anyone but her, but…

That half-year, those 6 months without him...were their own hell. 

Kakashi had almost completely disappeared inside his own head, appearing later and later to their dinners and get-togethers, uncharacteristically lax, like he was trying to merge his and Obito’s personalities into one. She wanted to scream, wanted to yell for him to _stop_ because _he wasn’t Obito, couldn’t he understand that he would_ never _be Obito?_ But he was mourning in his own way, and she could barely shove away her own grief when he showed up at their meeting spots with that one haunted grey eye and Obito’s eye covered by his hitai-ate. In any case, it didn’t matter—most of the time he treated her less like a teammate and more like a treasured object to protect anyways. 

Minato-sensei was in the running for Hokage and busy with diplomacy, but Rin thought he honestly plied himself with more work to avoid his grief. She couldn’t blame him—if she let herself think of it too long, Obito’s absence swelled to a chasm that threatened to swallow her whole. Kushina-nee and Kurenai tried to be there for her, and they helped, but they _couldn’t get it._ Not completely.

Not Kurenai, who still had Asuma to smile and laugh with her, inside jokes only they could understand. Not Kushina-nee, who could come back from missions to watch Minato-sensei trying and failing to cook her favorite dishes. 

They talked to her, they laughed, but at the end of it, she went home alone. There was no one she could talk to about her medical studies, no one who would tell her crazy stories of the rabid cats of Konoha or how Haruki-ojisan at the orphanage always needed help weeding his garden. It was quiet. She _hated_ it. 

(She’d regretted all the times she’d told Obito to be quiet. She just wanted to hear his voice again.)

She went to the Memorial stone multiple times a week to tell him about her day. She had tea with Obito’s baa-san weekly and helped her around the house. She left home hours earlier to help the people Obito would always stop for. She pretended there wasn’t a hole in her heart from the boy who spent almost 10 years by her side. She pretended, and pretended, but in reality... 

“I just wanted to see him again,” she whispered. 

The Sage looked pensive. “And you were able to temporarily send yourself to the physical world to attempt to help your former teammates.” 

Rin shrugged. She wasn’t sure _how_ she figured out how to send herself back. She just saw Obito and Kakashi trying to stop the end of the world, and she _needed_ to help her team. Just one more time. 

She hadn’t had a lot of time to think of it, but looking at her bare, cracked wrist, she had one theory.

“The Nohara used to wear accessories to keep their chakra in their bodies,” Rin explained. She didn’t have a clan, and their ’kekkei genkai’ of sorts wasn’t powerful or even useful, but it forced her to get great chakra control early. She held up her wrist, showing her red bracelet—the bracelet was now in shambles. “We’re born with leaking chakra, so an accessory helps to contain it, but we have to learn chakra control to keep it there. Maybe I was able to use some passively stored chakra?” 

The Sage glanced at the bracelet, saying nothing. Rin tried not to squirm. 

“The...Nohara,” he finally said. Something about the way he said _‘Nohara’_ sounded off. He glanced back at her. “Interesting. But without a dimensional technique, you would still be here.” 

Rin looked down. She wasn’t sure exactly how it had worked, but, “I think...I tried to use Kawarimi for the space between Kakashi and Obito.” She didn’t think it _would_ work, but she’d been desperate, and there were no rocks or trees in Kaguya’s dimension. Once you’re already dead, there’s no worst case scenario. She didn’t think she could hurt her teammates by trying.

“A...replacement technique, between worlds.” The Sage clearly was not expecting the answer. He smiled. “Impressive.”

Who else could say the Sage of Six Paths had complimented them? “Thank you. But I don’t think I can do it again.” Not that it would matter. She looked down at the world, where Naruto and Kakashi were in their last moments of life. They’d be joining her soon, and who knew what would happen afterwards. 

A few more minutes passed in silence, with the Sage surveying her and Rin wondering how rude it would be to ask to see what would happen to her friends.

“I suppose I owe you an explanation,” he said. He pointed towards the cracked vision of the world, where Kakashi and Naruto were frozen, rent into impossible pieces. 

“Time is frozen, at the moment. Temporarily halted, depending on what happens next,” he said vaguely.

“What happens next,” she echoed. 

He hesitated. “What is happening to Naruto and Kakashi is, in a sense, happening to you.” The words didn’t compute to Rin. She hadn’t gotten hit by one of the bones, she had just led them in front of Kakashi’s students. Rin looked down at herself once again. The cracks _did_ look incredibly similar. 

“But I wasn’t hit by the bones,” Rin said. The Sage nodded.

“You weren’t,” he agreed easily, “but you tried using a Kawarimi between dimensions. You no longer have a body, so you sent your soul instead.” Huh. Rin did _not_ know that. 

“Souls are not meant to be tangible. The technique being used to bring back souls from the Pure Lands uses the bodies of others to anchor souls and safeguard them, and the bodies dissolve when the soul ascends once more.” His expression didn’t change, but Rin thought he seemed...disgusted. “You had no such protections for your soul, and by sending your soul to Kaguya’s dimension, you have damaged it extensively. It’s why you see those cracks, and why your purgatory now looks this way.” 

She looked down, and fought the urge to cry. She had done it to herself, she had led her boys to death, and there was a consequence. Of _course_ there was. 

“What happens now?” she said. “I...die?” Again? 

The Sage paused. “Essentially. Once I unfreeze the flow of time, your soul will continue to disintegrate. You will not be able to ascend to the Pure Lands. Neither will Kakashi and Naruto.”

Rin’s head shot up. She wasn’t sure which eye to look into. The red one? Or was that rude? “They won’t?”

Hagoromo shook his head. “My mother’s technique is all-consuming. Their souls are going to disintegrate, including the chakra imprint of Ashura. Hashirama will fall as well.” 

Was there no hope at all? 

“Please, I—” she struggled for hope, but it ran like sand through her fingers. Naruto was about to die, and everything would be lost. “Is there anything we can do? Is there a way I can help?”

The Sage said nothing, and continued to stare. Rin tried not to shuffle her feet. 

“We face an impasse,” The Sage said, finally breaking eye contact. “At the current time, there is no hope for Naruto and Sasuke to seal Kaguya. Even if Hashirama had been in his proper body and was able to seal Kaguya with Sasuke, there won’t be enough time for him to receive Ashura’s chakra.” He looked a bit frustrated. 

“It’s possible to bend time, but not without an avatar to use as a marker. But maybe…” He gave her a quick glance.

“You died early, sacrificing yourself for your village.” he said. “You sacrificed your time in the Pure Lands to watch over your friends, and you sacrificed your soul to help your friends save the world from Kaguya.” 

Rin remained silent. The Sage looked towards the view of Kakashi and Obito. 

“Your death led to Obito’s destruction, and Obito’s machinations drove the world to ruin.” Rin flinched. Was he was here to punish her? 

The Sage looked back towards the screen. ”If Ashura’s imprint perishes here, his cycle of rebirth will stop, which will stop Indra’s as well, then all is lost to Kaguya.” He narrowed his eyes. “I need to remove Ashura’s chakra imprint _now,_ or it will be lost forever.”

Rin frowned. “Remove it?” The chakra was already in Naruto. How could it be removed? 

“I gave Ashura and Indra’s reincarnations my chakra. I can take it away, and Ashura's chakra imprint as well. If another eligible avatar is available, the chakra imprint can live on.” He glanced at Rin pointedly. 

She felt herself blinking owlishly. “Me?” 

The Sage nodded slightly. “I could try and send Sakura back, but she does not have any Uzumaki or Senju blood, and she was also born after critical events towards the revival of my mother had been taken. She also does not have sufficient knowledge of those events. Sasuke would be a less than ideal choice for the same reasons, and a transmigrant of Indra already existed during your lifetime.” The Sage made a face. “Obito is a critical player in my mother’s revival, born at the right time, but he could not carry Ashura’s chakra either.” He gazed back at the screen. “In any case, becoming the ten tails jinchuuriki warped Obito’s soul as well.” 

Rin winced. 

He smiled at her then. “The chakra of my Ashura’s clan, the Senju, still runs through you; faint, but there.” Rin jolted. She...a Senju? What?

“This compatibility would allow you to become a sort of transmigrant of Ashura, similar to Naruto and Hashirama.” his smile dimmed. “I have to warn you, however, that becoming Ashura’s transmigrant may come with its own consequences. I believe that putting Ashura’s imprint in you will keep your soul _and_ his form from destabilizing, but it will not be painless,” he warned. 

Rin frowned. She wasn’t looking forward to pain, but...she glanced at the world again. Kakashi’s face was a splintered mosaic and grief. Obito looked desolate. Kakashi’s kids looked broken, even without being hit by Kaguya’s technique. 

She thought back to the decades she had witnessed: Minato-sensei and Kushina-nee, unable to watch their little boy wander Konoha. Naruto, growing up shunned by the village. Kakashi, waking up early every day to spill his regrets on the memorial stone. Obito, slipping farther and farther into darkness until she could barely recognise him. Her kaa-san dying during the Kyuubi attack. Kurenai finally getting together with Asuma and Rin being unable to see it. 

She had to do it, didn’t she? Even if she stopped existing here, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself knowing she didn’t at least _try._

“I understand, Otsutsuki-sama. If I can change Obito’s mind...No, I _will_ change Obito’s mind.” Rin wouldn’t take no for an answer. She’d stop Obito, and so many people would be saved. 

Hagoromo nodded. “I had a feeling you would say that.” He laid his hands over the vision of the world, and golden chakra seeped from Naruto, pure sunlight spilling from a cup. In Hagoromo’s hands was a condensed ball of golden energy. 

The energy pulsed, growing and growing until a man stood in front of them, wearing white robes that matched the Sage, with spiky brown hair and brown eyes. Similar to her, cracks spanned his body from head to toe. He blinked owlishly, before turning to the vision. 

“What…?”

“Ashura,” The Sage said. His eyes looked sad. “Do you remember?” 

“I….” Ashura looked back at the vision, and Rin thought his eyes flashed gold. He nodded slowly. “We were fighting baa-sama—uh Kaguya? I don’t…” his eyes looked far away. “Me, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan and Ind—” he shook his head. “Sasuke.”

“We don’t have much time, son,” The Sage grasped his shoulder. “Your soul is fracturing.” 

Ashura looked down for the first time, and his eyes widened. Rin wondered if that was what she looked like when she learned that she too was on the verge of falling apart.

“I see,” he said, swallowing harshly. His eyes met hers, and he narrowed his eyes. “Father, who is—” 

“I am sending you both through time,” The Sage interrupted. Ashura took a step back. “As you know, your last reincarnation, Naruto, was hit with Kaguya’s technique. Nohara Rin sacrificed her life for peace, and sacrificed her soul for the hope of the world and her friends.” The Sage of Six Paths met her eyes, and they looked warm, approving. “It’s why I think she’d be an ideal choice for your next transmigrant.” 

“But she already has a soul,” Ashura said, confused. The Sage nodded. 

“I am aware. However, I believe that the weakened nature of both your forms will allow diffusion between chakra for the _both_ of you, giving you the strength you need for your next reincarnation, and allowing her to draw upon your strength in the meantime.” He grasped Ashura’s arm. “Hopefully stopping Kaguya from ever coming back again, and your next reincarnation and Indra’s reincarnation shall be your last.” 

Ashura’s hair lightened and grew into slightly longer spikes. His eyes swirled from brown to blue. “Stopping with me and Sasuke, huh…” he frowned, and looked back at the vision. “What happens to the timeline now? And...my friends.” 

The Sage’s expression didn’t change, but something about him seemed utterly _sad_ at that moment. 

“The timeline will be wiped from existence at the point you and Rin go back.” Ashura winced. “If you’re able to stop Obito’s path of destruction before he attacks Konoha and begins the Akatsuki, then the timeline continues, Naruto and Sasuke become the next reincarnations, slated to end your Samsara through their friendship, and Kaguya is no longer able to come back.” 

Ashura tilted his head. “What happens if we fail?” 

“If you fail, the next reincarnations of you and your brother will be delayed, if not halted. Obito’s plan continues, and my mother will be unimpeded in her quest to return to Earth.”

Ashura shuddered. “Baa-sama is the worst.” The Sage gave him a withering look, but didn’t respond. 

If they failed...Kaguya could come back, and no one would be prepared to do anything about it. They _had_ to get Zetsu and the Rinnegan, so the Fourth Shinobi war could be stopped. So Naruto and Kakashi wouldn’t have to perish.

Rin looked at Obito, almost 2 decades older than he was at Kannabi Bridge. Naruto was able to change his mind and get him on the right path. Her best friend was still in there, she just needed to drag him out (and get that awful curse mark out of his chest). 

“I’ll do it,” she said. “We can stop it all from happening. I know we can.” 

Ashura turned his head back to her, and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you Rin! Obito told me a lot about you.” That didn’t hurt, she told herself. Not at all. “Thank you for letting me piggyback off your soul for a little bit.” His hair slowly darkened to what it was before. 

What does one say in these situations? 

“Uh, you’re welcome….Ashura-san.” He waved his hand away.

“You can just call me Ashura!” 

Rin nodded. She had a feeling that the millions of questions she had wouldn’t get answered. 

The Sage tilted his head. “I suppose...my other son will go back into your body as well. But with the original seal used...other measures must be taken.” He grimaced, and looked at Ashura. “Measures we do not have time to fully explain. Every moment we spend here is a moment lost in the timeline. I apologise in advance, Rin.” 

_Other son?_ Before she could ask, the world spun, and the vision she’d had over the world for the past few decades...faded away. Images flashed in front of her: the ritual Kiri did to place something inside her, running with Kakashi on their mission, and herself, launching in front of Kakashi’s attack,

“Oh, that looks brutal,” Ashura muttered. 

Fire broiled in her chest. The Sage summoned a piece of paper, and began what looked like a seal, but nothing like Rin had ever seen before. Lines arched and curved, becoming what looked like an intricate mandala. He finally drew some concentric circles, before stepping back.

“I believe this will work. May I?” She glanced at him, questioning, but he took the paper and placed it on her stomach. The paper glowed, and disappeared. The fire abated slightly, and in her mind's eye, a turtle sat in the middle of a lake, looking bewildered and lost. Rin’s stomach clenched. This was—this was the beast sealed inside her that day, wasn’t it? 

“What was put inside me?” Rin whispered. 

The Sage looked at her, and for some reason, Rin thought he looked...disappointed. 

Rin ran her head over the scenes. It looked like she was being brought back to her last day alive. If the Sage’s seal held, then the Kiri seal wouldn’t harm her, right? She could run with Kakashi back to the village, and drag Obito along. Maybe she could use Kawarimi on a local Kiri nin, and try to get Kakashi and her into Konoha’s backwoods before Minato-sensei could come. Or waiting the precious few minutes before Obito would be there to help. It would be tight, but maybe she could…

The Sage put a hand on her shoulder and Ashura’s, and their bodies began to glow. 

The earlier feeling of flame had increased exponentially. She doubled over, gasping. There was magma running through her veins, there _had_ to be. It felt like claws had wrapped themselves around her chest and tugged. She gasped, unsure of when the world had gone dark. Was she—how did she end up on the floor? 

She turned watering eyes up to the Sage, whose mouth was still moving. Not that she wasn’t grateful for the second chance, but...didn’t he... _realise_ she could barely hear him over the sound of her heartbeat?

Wait, _heartbeat?_

“...believe this ….part, Nohara Rin….hope that you are able to change….Isobu...Ashura....reconciliation.” 

The world spun once again, the fire _erupted_ in her chest, and she knew no more. 

* * *

Perhaps the first thing Kakashi’s tou-san had taught him was trajectory. After missions, he’d scoop Kakashi up and take them both to the backyard to work on katas or kenjutsu or throwing kunai. 

“You have to keep moving,” tou-san would say when Kakashi would dodge a blow with a stilted parry. “Stop _stopping_ , cub. Don’t doubt yourself. You have to keep moving to finish a move and flow into the next one.” 

They’d start again, and tou-san would remind him, patiently, to flow into his katas with a similar grace to tou-san’s wolves. 

_Keep moving. Stop Stopping._

He wished his tou-san could have taken his own advice. It was the only lesson Kakashi had taken from the man after he died. _Keep moving. Stop stopping._ It had taken him to Minato-sensei, and further, to Obito and Rin, before it all went wrong.

The worst part of Obito’s gift, Kakashi decided, wasn’t the scorn of the Uchiha or the perpetual chakra exhaustion, or even the sharpened memory; it was watching catastrophes build in slow motion and being unable to _stop_ them. 

Watching Rin’s descent and knowing that _nothing_ he could do would stop her from falling into his line of fire would be a moment he would never be able to forget, Sharingan or not. 

He’d _tried;_ he’d tried to keep Rin safe, like he’d tried to help Obito in his last moments, like he’d tried to be there for his father. And in _each_ and _every_ time, he failed. 

_Keep moving. Stop stopping._

Kakashi heard the sickening squelch as he broke through Rin’s chest and the horrifying warmth of her blood on his fingers. He had grabbed hold of a heart that had always been too big for the world, and his momentum pushed him _through._

Rin’s lips trembled as she looked at him, looking horrified and more than a little surprised. Kakashi didn’t know _why._ She coughed, sending drops of blood over his clothes, his face.

“S—sorry,” she whispered. _Why was she apologising?_ And her legs gave up beneath her. He held her, took his shaking hand out of her chest, tried to ignore the hole, the way her shattered ribs scratched his forearm and the sheen of red coating his fingers. 

He _couldn’t._

The Kiri nin still surrounded them on all sides. Kakashi had to run, find Minato-sensei, _something._ Kakashi tried to move, to get Rin ( _thebodythebody_ ) to safety, but his limbs would not agree. 

A thump. He had let go of Rin. 

For a moment, his vision of the world sharpened in a way that honed in on Rin’s too still body, blood droplets beginning to pool around her. 

Then his vision doubled, tripled, and it all went black. 

* * *

As he jumped through the forest, Obito had the brief, errant thought that he hadn’t worn shoes in months.

Obito didn’t know what to expect when he got onto the field—if Rin and Kakashi were surrounded by Kiri ANBU and Jonin, they’d need help. Maybe more than Obito could provide. He honestly wasn’t sure how much he could do in Guruguru’s body. But he’d try his best. For both of them. And afterwards, they could go home, and Obito would yell at Minato-sensei for never being in the right place at the right time, fast as he was. 

Obito cleared the trees, and finally reached the fighting. 

And what he saw…

He saw…

An entirely foreign image, made up of what had to be real people, faces, motivations, but there was his best friend with a hole in her chest from none other than his teammate. 

The black space around his left eye rippled strangely, and he could _see._

Short brown hair, cut above her collarbones because she’d always hated how her hair would stick to her neck. Twin clan markings from a clan that never was. Chocolate eyes, always warm, now wide-eyed and terrified. Blood dripping on tanned cheeks. 

“S—sorry,” she whispered. Her eyes fell shut, and her body sagged. 

An entirely foreign image, composed of the people Obito thought looked like people he knew, in positions that were utterly unfamiliar. 

A rock jabbed the arch of Obito’s foot. His toes twitched around the intrusion. 

The figure that looked like Kakashi moved his hand out of Rin’s chest. Around them, a squad of ninja watched, making random, nonsensical noises of outrage. 

An entirely foreign image. And an entirely familiar chakra, one that felt like steam from Hōjicha tea and the gentle ebb of the Naka at its calmest, fading and fading until it….disappeared. He ignored the fizzing lightning chakra barely flickering beside her. 

_Who are these people?_

Water crashed around the rocks of the area, sounding strangely muted in Obito’s ears. Kakashi fell face forward on the floor. 

_What is this place?_

The Kiri ninja grabbed their weapons, shouting something that Obito didn’t know or care to hear. Shuriken came towards him, and he didn’t move. _What was the point?_

The shuriken phased through his body. The water roared in Obito’s ears, and he suddenly couldn’t stand the noise. He screamed wordlessly and charged forward. 

The water calmed in Obito’s ears. It began to rain, and Obito didn’t stop his crusade, not when multiple ninja came at him at once, not when they swung their swords, especially not as they moved towards Rin. 

You could ask him what happened, and he could tell you snippets: the look of the vines as they twisted in and out of someone's torso, the squelch of the mud infused with blood and other bodily fluids, the shattered mask of the one nin who had the _audacity_ to try and collect Rin’s body.

What Obito _could_ remember, though, was the feeling of rain on his skin, and the ocean that crashed in the distance, in his ears. The rhythmic cadence of water as it surrounded him, calming and infuriating all at once. 

He fought through the rain, until he could hear no more screams, until he tried to wipe away the incoming droplets on his mask (Guruguru’s face?) and came back with bloodstained fingers. 

Blood squished between his toes as he finally stopped at an entirely familiar body in an unfamiliar, inconceivable position. She was surrounded in a halo of blood. 

He couldn’t feel her chakra. _He couldn’t feel…_

He placed trembling hands towards her neck, and his fingers phased through. Rin wasn’t breathing, and Obito jolted as his fingers came in contact with her skin and electricity sparked. His fingers smoked. 

Unfamiliar. Inconceivable. Unknown. 

_Illusory_. 

And Obito finally understood. The roaring in his ears subsided.

“I get it now,” he whispered. He cradled the body, trying to ignore the electricity that arched through him. If he thought of it, he’d kick the grey-haired _impostor_ next to him until he bled, take his eye back because Kakashi was nothing but a _disappointment,_ and no better than the pieces of Kiri nin strewn about the clearing. 

Life wasn’t worth living without Rin. Obito could go through war with his best friend at his side, the ups and downs and dubious morality that had stretched him thin, but _this_ …

 _Unfamiliar. Inconceivable. Unknown. Illusory._ Obito repeated the words in his head until he could almost hear them with every beat of his heart, a new mantra for his new path. 

“This is hell,” Obito said softly, brushing hair and dirt out of Rin’s face. “Isn’t it?” 

Rin’s body had turned so _cold._

 _He’s in hell._

Obito glanced back at Hatake Kakashi. It would be so _easy_ to rip his gift right out of the bastard’s face, but better yet…

“This is hell,” he reminded his teammate. The bastard didn't move. “And until I can make heaven, you’ll suffer right here with me.” 

Obito stood, gathering Rin in his arms, ignoring the incredible ache that had started to settle into his limbs. He had an old ancestor to return to, plans to fulfill….

He looked down at her face, and frowned. He tugged the travesty of the Will of Fire off her forehead, dropping Konoha's symbol next to Kakashi's feet. Obito closed Rin's unseeing eyes with a trembling hand. 

He had a grave to dig.


	3. love at the edge of the world

He came back to the world abruptly, in between one breath and the next _._ Chakra exhaustion weighed down his limbs, and a pulsing pain behind his eyes accompanied each breath he took. He kept his breaths even, and took in his surroundings. 

The beeping of machines, the smell of antiseptic and bleach. A robin chirping outside the window. The underlying scent of fresh grass and Hashirama trees, and a closer, ever familiar scent of fresh linens and steel.

“I know you’re awake, Kakashi.” 

He didn’t want to look Minato-sensei in the eye. But there was no point in delaying the inevitable. 

Obito’s eye ached as it adjusted to the light. He shut it immediately. Minato-sensei stared back at him with an unreadable emotion. His hair swayed as he tilted his head. 

“How are you feeling?” 

“I’m fine.” Why were there no restraints on his wrists? Why was he not in T&I? He was a murderer, he _killed_ Rin. Obito was right—he was trash. No, he was worse. 

Minato-sensei made a face, and gave Kakashi a doubtful look. Kakashi wouldn’t budge. He didn’t deserve anything else. 

“It’s been 3 days. I came with reinforcements to get you and Rin—” Kakashi flinched, “but when we arrived, all the Kiri nin were dead and we only saw Rin’s hitai-ate.” Sensei looked apologetic. “Due to wartime procedure, The Yamanaka had to do a preliminary look into your mind, which may explain the headache you have. They reported their findings to me, but... can you tell us what happened?” 

Kakashi stilled. _They knew._

They knew that Rin had died by his hand. Kakashi’s chest ached. 

“I killed her.” 

Minato-sensei twitched, and he stared at Kakashi. Kakashi could now see the bags under his eyes. Sensei ran a hand through his hair. 

“Report, Kakashi.” 

And he did. He could feel his emotions slip away as he spoke.

(There was no space for emotion here.)

He described Rin’s kidnapping, and her description of something inside her. He described running from the Kiri nin and Chidori.

Kakashi looked down at his arm. It had burn marks from electricity, but it was clean. It _shouldn’t_ be. It had _no right_ to be. 

Sensei’s shoulders hunched. “I had a feeling… when we saw her hitai-ate, she was either in Kiri, or…” he trailed off, clearing his throat. “In any case, It's not your fault, Kakashi. She made a choice—” Sensei’s fists clenched in his lap, “and it’s not your fault.” 

Kakashi shook his head. “I made a promise to Obito, Sensei. I broke it.” The Uchiha was probably cursing him from the Pure Lands. He had every right to. 

“You did everything you could, Kakashi.” Kakashi turned away from the man. Minato-sensei sighed softly, but the sound seemed caught in his throat. 

“I’m _sorry_ , Kakashi. I promised I’d be there for you, and that I wouldn’t be late the next time. I’m so _sorry._ ” 

He didn’t understand why Sensei was apologising. He didn’t understand why Rin apologised. He didn’t get _anything at all._

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Minato-sensei gave the incoming nurse a plastic smile as she fussed over Kakashi’s vitals. He slowly made his way to the exit. 

“Kushina will be by to visit soon—you were sleeping when she came by earlier,” Minato-sensei explained. He paused by the door. “Please know that I don’t blame you—no one does.” 

Kakashi shut his eye. 

\----

_“S—sorry.”_

_A cough. Blood splatters on his face. A heart pumping outside its owner’s body. Bright brown eyes dim as she sways. The ocean and Kiri nin roar in his ears._

\----

“ _Bakashi!”_

_Rin’s body, and Obito’s voice. Her eyes morph into one sunken lid and one glowing red eye. She (he?) begins to cry. The crash of the ocean sounds like falling rocks._

_“You never keep your promises,” they whisper._

\----

_Blood on the tatami mat. The Hatake house is quiet._

_He can’t make out the body in the dim moonlight. Kakashi shakes as he edges closer._

_Rin lies there, motionless, with his tanto stuck in her stomach. Then her figure bulks, and brown hair lightens and lengthens in grey. Father stares at him with two Sharingan._

_“Your fault.” he whispers._

_“Your fault.” A_ _n echo, both male and female. Both young._

_(So young.)_

_“Your fault!”_

\----

Kakashi’s eyes snapped open. He pretended his arms didn’t tremble as he poured himself some water. He didn’t know how much time had passed—judging by the ramen container by his bed, Kushina-nee had come and left. Hours? It was dark.

His eyes automatically focused on movement to his left, where a black shape slid inside from his window. Light feet landed soundlessly, and a short figure stood next to his bedside. Kakashi thought about calling for a nurse, or trying to defend himself...but what was the point? 

A hand rose. Dim chakra fueled light flooded the room, and Kakashi could make out long black hair and a shadowed face. The woman moved forward with an almost unnatural amount of grace, more similar to a glide than a step. As she moved closer, Kakashi could see light brown eyes, the handle of a tanto sheathed on her back. 

Kakashi didn’t know how it hit him: he had never met this woman before, he was sure. But something in her eye shape, the curve of her face, maybe, or the way her hair fell.... It didn’t match with the slight frown on her lips, nor the way her brow slanted. All he knew was when it hit him, he could feel himself pale, and he bowed his head. 

“Nohara-san.”

Rin didn’t seem anything like her... mother? Sister? No, he remembered Rin saying she had lived with only her mother. He could vaguely remember her silhouette when she’d pick Rin up from the Academy.

She looked young, in her late twenties, maybe early thirties. Her eyes had lingered over the beeping machines, before settling on him. She had no apparent issue with silence, and the quiet stretched for moments on end. Kakashi counted the wrinkles of his bedsheet. 

“I’m sorry,” he finally whispered. “I’m so sorry.” 

The wind gently swayed the branches next to the window. The branches tapped at the windowpane. She still didn’t say anything. 

“I didn’t mean to,” Kakashi found himself saying, head ducking further. “But it’s my fault. I’m sorry, Nohara-san.” 

“Tsutsuji.” Her voice was soft, faint. 

Before he could stop it, a wordless noise of confusion escaped him.

She smiled without humor. “Tsutsuji-san is fine, Kakashi-kun. May I?” She gestured to the hospital chair, where a container of miso still sat. Kakashi nodded. 

She sat down in one fluid motion. With the way she carried herself, Kakashi wouldn’t be surprised if she was a dancer. But Tsutsuji-san wore a kunai pouch strapped at her hip and a hitai-ate. He didn’t know what rank Tsutsuji-san was. Maybe a chunin? 

“I talked to the Yamanaka, and your sensei,” she started, still giving him that intense stare. From closer up, he could see the bags under her eyes. She didn’t have the same clan markings as Rin, he realised. 

But perhaps the most jarring difference…her eyes looked… _dead_. 

“You’re not at fault, and I don’t blame you,” she said calmly. She finally looked off towards some flowers, something Kushina-nee must have brought before. “Even without something being sealed inside her, I think...I think Rin may have wanted this anyway.” Her eyes flashed, but her face remained placid. 

Kakashi blinked, and something like nausea roiled his stomach. Rin wanted _…_

“I came here because the funeral is being held tomorrow. If you are healthy enough to attend, you’re welcome to.” 

“You want _me_ to come?” Kakashi asked, incredulous. Tsutsuji-san nodded. 

“You were one of her teammates,” she said simply, “and one of her friends.”

Truthfully speaking, he wasn’t. Before Obito, she was the competent, punctual team member who managed to keep Obito in line due to the Uchiha’s massive crush. After Obito...well…things had shifted immensely. It was Kakashi’s job to protect her, and he failed. 

They weren’t friends. Maybe they could have been. 

His chest ached. He rubbed it absentmindedly. Tsutsuji-san zeroed in on the motion. 

“I’ll leave you to rest.” And she was gone in a flash of black hair. 

The sun was obnoxiously bright the next day. Kakashi spent the funeral procession perched in a tree. He knew Kushina-nee and Sensei knew he was there, but he wasn’t sure if Tsutsuji-san could sense him. 

Unsurprisingly, the funeral was packed. Obito’s grandmother wailed loudly in the front, where Tsutsuji-san stood, stolid. Civilians and shinobi alike positioned themselves around her. Kakashi could see his Academy cohort as well; Kurenai, Asuma, Genma, Gai. Not a single face in the gathered group was dry. 

Kakashi looked down at his hands. He had the familiar pang of knowing he should not be here.

Rin was likable. She may not have been the strongest on the team, but she was a medical prodigy: capable, _dependable,_ and extraordinarily kind. She had held Team Minato together. And Kakashi ripped that apart. 

He wished he could go back to two weeks ago, and tell Rin he would visit Obito’s baa-san with her, or get ramen with her and Kushina-nee. How had he taken it all for granted? 

_Why_ had he taken it all for granted? 

A pulse of chakra brought him back to the present. Sensei and Kushina-nee stared at him, Sensei brought his hand up. 

_Dinner_ , he signed. _My house. 3 hours._

Judging from the set of Kushina’s mouth, Kakashi wasn’t getting out of it. He nodded. 

The group began to clear. He jumped down from his position, and pins and needles ran down his limbs as his numb legs began to awaken. He made his way to the headstone once one figure remained. She didn’t turn to him. 

“I was wondering if you’d ever come out of that tree.”

Kakashi bowed. “I apologise, Tsutsuji-san.” 

“Stop apologising. Please.” 

He bobbed his head wordlessly. Closer to the graves, the air smelled like incense. Somehow, he had ended up on his knees. His eyes found the headstone, he felt like it would never leave. _Nohara Rin. 13 years old._

Her birthday wasn’t that far away. 

“I never wanted her to be a shinobi,” Tsustuji-san said finally. A stray lock of black hair fell into her face as her head bowed. “I always wanted her to be...better, than what I was. Or a gardener, like her father.” She shook her head. “She always loved flowers.” There was something that sounded almost...bitter, about her tone. Kakashi didn’t know what to make of it. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing at all. 

Then the damning words slipped out. “I was never a good friend to her. Not… not in the way she deserved.” His fingers clenched in his lap. 

Tsutsuji-san finally turned to him, and a small part of Kakashi felt startled at the fact that she had not cried. 

The answering smile she gave was brittle. “Funny you say that. I was never a good mother to her. Not in the way she deserved either.” 

* * *

Minato watched his last student walk into his house with Rin’s mother. 

He had met the woman before, briefly, but Tsutsuji-san was almost always out on missions. Just like the prior times, Tsutsuji-san remained a blank slate; composed, quiet, with a fluid sort of grace that was only seen and cultivated in ANBU’s Infiltration and Seduction branch, affectionately dubbed the Petal Squadron.

Kushina had offered to host dinner after the funeral, since Tsutsuji-san had rushed home from a mission in Kumo at the news of her daughter’s death. The woman looked tired enough as it was. 

Dinner remained a quiet affair. Minato ate without tasting anything, spoke to Kushina without any substance behind his words. There was no Obito to ramble about his day or his training, no Rin to discuss fuinjutsu with Kushina. Obito’s absence was already too much to deal with, but without Rin.... it was too much. It still felt unreal, as if all he needed to do was look towards the door and he’d see Rin burst through with an excuse, just as she had been in the last few weeks before the mission. 

Minato could almost see Kakashi shrinking into himself. All he could do was be there for the boy, but Minato wasn’t sure what that even _looked_ like anymore. 

“Thank you for holding this dinner, Kushina-san. Minato-san.” Tsutsuji said lightly as she stood. “I’m afraid I have to prepare for another mission. Please excuse me.”

“So soon?” Kushina questioned. Tsutsuji nodded slightly. 

“There are some parts of my mission that still remain to be...tied up.” her mouth twisted. “My duty to Konoha remains unfinished.”

No one could argue with that logic. 

Kushina stood immediately, and gave Minato a worried glance. “Please, let me walk you out.” 

Nohara Tsutsuji was of average height, if not a bit shorter than most. She kept her shoulders relaxed and stance even as she walked away, but for a moment, Minato was dragged back in time to the slumped shoulders and tired gaze of Hatake Sakumo. Minato wasn’t part of the Petals Squadron, but he knew what they did. He had heard of the toll it had taken on their minds first, before their bodies. A thrill of panic ran through him, and his hands twitched with the urge to—he didn’t know. Apologise again? Ask her how she was really doing? 

But Tsutsuji kept walking, and walking, and walking, and Minato stayed silent. He closed his eyes briefly, and hoped that Rin and Obito were finally resting together in the Pure Lands. 

* * *

Rin blinked her eyes open to absolute darkness. The air felt too still, stale, and her chest... _ached._

What happened? How did she get here? 

She turned over and was immediately cognizant of the small area she inhabited. She tried to raise her arms, heavy and weak as they were, but they were stopped almost immediately. She was boxed in. She couldn’t move. 

Had she been captured? That hadn’t happened before—hadn’t she just gotten back? 

Then it came to her. 

Falling, too little time to stop her course, despite all her wishes for the opposite. The feeling of electricity coursing through her chest, coughing blood into Kakashi’s horrified, tearful face. 

And Rin had had the nerve to apologise for once again traumatising her teammate. 

She failed. Rin tried to bring her hands up to her face, but once again, there was no space. 

Where was...had she been _buried?_

She blinked rapidly, but there was no difference in the darkness. The walls seemed closer than ever, and Rin’s lungs heaved for breath. She was alive, _somehow,_ but she had already failed. She hadn’t even been able to _try._ Obito must have already seen her supposed death. Where was she, Konoha? How was she supposed to get out of this? 

_Rin!_

Her head jerked, but obviously there was no one near her. But there was a voice—deep, male, and dimly familiar. 

_Rin-san, it’s okay._ Another voice: also male, somehow softer, but holding a note of anxiety that fuelled her own. She tried to push out again at the box she was in, to no avail. Had she finally gone crazy too? 

The first voice spoke again. _Let me handle this, otouto. Rin, I need you to calm down for me, okay?_

A hysterical breath left her. She was buried alive. How could she be calm about this? 

_I know, it seems impossible to be calm right now, but breathe with me, okay?_ Exaggerated breaths filled her mind, and Rin desperately tried to sync her breathing to theirs, unknowingly closing her eyes. 

She blinked as light filled her vision. She was in a golden room, seeming to radiate light from the cracks in the walls. She could see no benches, no chairs, but a man floated in the center above a pool of clear water. 

“Rin!” he greeted, floating towards her. It took her a moment, but she recognized the man in front of her: Ashura. 

“Ashura,” she said faintly. Her brow furrowed. “What are…” 

He grimaced. The cracks on his face shifted with his expression. “It’s a bit hard to explain. Let’s sit by the water, okay? We need Isobu too.” 

She sat at the edge, and looking into the placid water, she could faintly see a dark shape. Isobu _?_

“So,” Ashura rubbed his neck, “we came back at the point of time where you were lining up for Hatake—no, Kakashi-sensei?” his brow furrowed, and he muttered under his breath. His hair lightened to a familiar blonde, before rapidly darkening to black and falling to his shoulders, then retreating into spikes and going blonde again. Rin squinted at the hair. _How was he…_

Ashura shook his head as if to clear it. “Kakashi-sensei’s attack landed,” he finished. He ran his fingers through the water, and Rin shook. “Thanks to Father's new seal, Isobu was able to save you, but Obito had already buried you.”

Rin’s breath caught. Obito already thought she was dead? That meant Kakashi thought he had _killed_ …Rin’s hand balled into a fist.

She was supposed to get it _right_ this time. She’d have to find Obito and prove to him she was alive, right? And then they’d both go back to Konoha. Maybe she could make it work still.

Rin resisted the hysterical laugh building in the back of her throat. She had thought she’d be able to stop herself from jumping into Kakashi’s chidori, hadn’t she? Kami, she was already messing things up. What if Obito couldn’t be stopped and everything continued and it’s all her fault and she failed Kakashi again and again and agai—

“Uh, is that normal?”

She blinked, and looked down at her body. Mist exuded from her, curling around her limbs in crimson tendrils and dissipating in the air. Ashura looked confused. 

“I don’t…” This didn’t look like her normal chakra when she had taken off her bracelet. That was a lilac color. Not a deep red. “I don’t know.” 

Ashura sighed. “Maybe Isobu would know. In any case, we need to get you out of here, _before_ you run out of oxygen. Luckily for us, the grave feels shallow, and the wood is weak—with enough force, we should be able to bust you out.” His lips quirked. “I have an idea. Stick your hand in the water.” 

Rin nodded, moving closer to the edge. She placed her hand in the water, and a sensation too close to pain to be comfortable ran through her limbs. She gasped. 

“It might be uncomfortable, sorry.” She looked at Ashura with narrowed eyes, and he rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Okay, I deserve that. But do you feel Isobu?” She frowned, and tried to focus harder. Rin briefly remembered trying to tell Kakashi of the awful feeling of _something_ strange inside of her, something awful and demonic. Now, it was...different. The chakra felt uncomfortable, an intrusion almost like senbon sliding under her skin. The longer her hand was in the water, the more the feeling of violation grew. The water bubbled, and the beginning of gray spikes broke the surface. Ringed magenta eyes stared at her. 

_Rin-san_. 

The mouth of the being didn’t move, but Rin could hear its soft voice ring through the room. Rin glanced at Ashura, who nodded encouragingly. 

“Are you...Isobu?” she asked. The being—Isobu—hummed in agreement. 

_I suppose my other son will go back into your body as well,_ The Sage had said. Rin stared at the turtle before her. 

“You’re the Sage’s son?” Rin asked. The water bubbled, and Rin had the feeling that Isobu was giggling. 

Isobu’s head fully resurfaced. _I am one of many,_ he replied. Rin nodded slowly. What, really, are you supposed to do in these situations? 

“It’s nice to meet you, Isobu. Thank you for healing me.” While Rin may not have been the happiest knowing there was another being inside her, that wasn’t truly Isobu’s fault. And Isobu had healed her when he didn’t have to. 

For some odd reason, Rin felt a distant sort of amazement, a clinical form of curiosity. 

_You’re welcome...Rin-chan._

Ashura cleared his throat. “Okay, now that introductions are done, we can explain the rest later. We _really_ should get you out of this coffin—you don’t have that much air left. Can you help, otouto?” 

_Yes, nii-sama._

Ashura made a face. “I told you to call me nii-san!” 

That distant amusement came back, along with an underlying hint of something darker, something Rin couldn’t explain. Magenta eyes slid back to her. _Place your hand on my head, Rin-chan, and direct chakra to your hands._

Ashura’s eyes widened. “And make sure to hold your breath!” 

Easier said than done. Rin placed her hand on a grey spike, and tried funneling chakra to her hands in the outside world. The first problem she encountered was her chakra being absolutely off _._ Rin had never had a lot of chakra, and was used to each curve and edge of her coils as it ran through her body. Now, her chakra coils felt like one big bruise, and her chakra rushed about violently, uncontrollably. She pushed chakra to her hands, and they burned _._

There was a loud creak, and something launched out of Rin’s wrists. Dirt began to pour in a steady stream on her face. Rin took her last breath. She couldn’t see anything _._

Rin tried to move her limbs, and there was a little more give, but a _lot_ of dirt. The wood around the coffin had shattered, but otherwise, the dirt piled on top kept her pinned. Her lungs burned. There was something sharp and jagged in her palms, and it burned against her skin. 

_Just a little more, Rin!_

Fighting the urge to cry or scream, Rin channeled more chakra to her hands, and her pathways screamed. She couldn’t direct the monsoon that her chakra had become. The chakra went every which way. There was a sensation of being pushed, and suddenly, Rin could feel the sun on her skin. 

She rolled into a ball, and began breathing harshly. The grass moved sluggishly in her vision. Her back was on fire _._

 _You did it, Rin!_ She could hear Ashura clapping in her head, as well as feel a distant sort of accomplishment. She tried to send her thanks to Isobu, and the feeling of accomplishment grew. 

_You’re welcome, Rin-chan._

She stayed on the floor, motionless, for minutes on end, trying to regulate her breathing. If anyone had stumbled upon her at that moment, she’d be too weak to do anything about it; her skin felt charred, especially her back, and the faint smell of cooking meat hung in the air. The wind was a soothing balm on her skin. 

After what could have been 10 minutes or an hour, Rin felt a bit more stability, and slowly rose to her feet. Her limbs felt sore and stiff. Looking down, she saw that her hands and wrists were covered in blisters that slowly seemed to be fading. Was she...healing? It must have been Isobu or Ashura’s doing. But for every blister that healed, another took its place. Rin’s hands looked unsightly. 

The ground was littered with what looked like coral, leaving dirt and coral bits strewn around the clearing. The coffin itself was inundated by coral spikes. A grave marker was haphazardly placed in front of the grave she must have just shot out of. But as she looked around, she encountered something else. 

The grave was shallow, and the wood weak, in the words of Ashura. If it were done in a regulation shinobi grave, Rin would have suffocated by the time she tried to scrabble for the surface. When Rin resurfaced, after maybe 3 feet of earth and a delicate coffin of Juniper wood, she found herself speechless. 

Wildflowers surrounded the grave, and if not for their unnatural growth Rin would say she was in a meadow. 

She felt herself swallow roughly. _A meadow of all her favorite flowers._

Bellflowers, pansies, and poppies dotted the ground, a cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun had just started to touch the waves, throwing amber, yellow, and pink hues over the water. Her first name was displayed on a simple gravemarker. Rin closed her eyes, and took in the crashing of the waves. 

(She was grateful to feel things again.) 

She hadn’t seen where she was buried the first time. She had assumed Konoha, but— 

_Wow. Obito doesn’t do things by halves, does he?_ Ashura said softly. 

A huge understatement, if Rin’s ever heard one. 

_It might be a good idea to put this place back in order before we go._

Right. Rin tidied the grave, taking care not to look at her name. She didn’t believe in superstitions the way Obito’s grandmother did, but cleaning your own grave _had_ to be bad luck. She was sure of it. She buried the coral in the grave, along with any wood splinters. How had she made so much coral anyway? 

When her cleanup was done, she took one last look at the clearing, before laying a shaky hand on the flowers. “I’m going to get you back Obito, and then we’re both going to go home.” 

It was a promise. One she would keep with her last breath. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fought with this chapter, so goddamn much. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
